230 SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. [Ecohigical Botany. 



(vi.) Inland Rocks. 



The lichen Stereocanlon ramtdosum is abundant and luxuriant on rock-faces, 

 Aciphylla antipoda, Lycopodium fastigiatum, Hymenophyllum multifidum, and other 

 meadow plants being also met with. 



(E.) MACQUARIE ISLAND. 



From the writings of Scott and Hamilton a good deal can be learnt as to the 

 vegetation of Macquarie Island. On sea-cliffs, where they must frequently be 

 drenched with salt water, are cushions of Colobanthus muscoides (Hamilton, Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. xxvii, p. 566). There, too, will be Crassula moschata. Cottda 

 phimosa occurs in plenty along the shore, and probably on the cliffs, where also in 

 places is a luxuriant growth of StUbocarpa polaris. 



Where the ground is flat, between the slopes of the hills and the shore, are 

 swamps with a close growth of Poa foliosa on tall trunks, " around which is usually 

 a muddy pool, more or less deep, into every one of which you plunge with 

 imerring certainty when trying to cross the belt of tussock swamp, the only way 

 to avoid this unpleasantness being to jump from the top of one tussock to another" 

 (Hamilton, loc. cit., p. 564). Where there is wet ground near the sea not occupied 

 exclusively by tussock are Cardamine corymbosa, Montia jontana, and Callitriche 

 antarctica. 



The slopes of the hills are occupied by a close growth of Poa foliosa tussock, 

 StUbocarpa, and the silvery rosettes of Pleurophyllum Hookeri. Here, too, will be 

 Acaena adscendens* and the other species recorded, which is probably A. Sanguis- 

 orhae var. antarctica. According to Scott (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xv, p. 486), this 

 formation occupies a considerable area, and is characterized by long stretches of 

 yellowish tussock, with occasional great patches of the bright-green StUbocarpa 

 polaris, or of the peculiar sage-green Pleurophyllum. 



So far the physiognomy of the vegetation is distinctly that of the New Zealand 

 subantarctic islands in general, but on the exposed hill-tops all is changed ; the 

 wind here has the mastery, and the formation is allied to the wind-desert (Schenck, 

 " Pflanzengeographie der subantarctischen Inseln," p. 39) of Kerguelen Land. Here 

 is Hamilton's vivid description : "At about 300 ft. you gain a plateau so swept 

 by the antarctic gales that vegetation is reduced to compact closely growing mosses, 

 small Uncinias, and the conspicuous cushion-like masses of Azorella Selago. In 

 the hollows of the uplands are countless little tarns or lakes, some of considerable 

 extent. Round the tops of the hills the wind has cut out wonderful terraces from 

 a few inches to a foot or two in height, with completely bare rock, much disintegrated 

 by the weather on the top. In some of the more sheltered places or gullies stunted 

 plants of StUbocarpa and Pleurophyllum cover the ground " (Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. xxvii, p. 564). 



• I pointed out in my " Botanical Excursion," p. .319, that this was distinct from the New Zealand 

 species hitherto called by the same name. Specimens of the Kerguelen Land plant kindly given me by 

 Professor Dr. H. Schenck strongly support this view. The New Zealand plant, then, requires another 

 name. 



